ESPN, You Are Freaking Killing Me!

The continued coverage of the Penn State scandal is borderline inappropriate.

Look, let me start out by saying I am shocked and appalled at the atrocities that have been allowed to go on behind this whole Penn State fiasco (which, for those not in the know, is a really shocking discovery of sexual abuse reportedly perpetrated by a former member of the Lions coaching staff and ignored by the university. For more details, just turn your TV on). It is disgusting and the level of ignorance displayed by the indirect parties involved in this is just plain shocking.

Now, that being said, the way ESPN is currently milking it to the fullest extent is also sad, but in a different way.

Granted, this is a huge story and new layers gets added to it on a daily basis. Heck, just last night, after ten o'clock, revered Penn State coach Joe Paterno was fired by phone call, which in itself, is wrong on so many levels. Yes, the man basically turned a blind eye to the events after sending the complaints up the university food chain and that is indefensible, but the man deserves better than a phone call dismissal after all the years and service he gave Penn State.

But, back to my problem, the amount of time being devoted to going over the same parts of this combined with increasingly disturbing and detailed accounts of what happened is akin to taking a bad thing and giving it wings. Just this morning, I listened to their flagship morning radio show, Mike and Mike in the Morning, and for over an hour straight, this was all they talked about.

And, let me say, not just talked about, but vividly talked about. The smaller of the two Mike's, that would be Mike Greenberg, actually read excerpts from the report stating in explicit detail the one alleged incident that occurred on the Penn State campus back in 2002. While sparing you the majority of the details that I wasn't spared, let's just say what he read involved a ten year old boy, Jerry Sandusky (the man accused), and the locker room showers.

Yeah, it's that bad.

OK, Greenberg did stop reading the report before the majority of the words describing the act was said but what he did say, I think, crossed a line. What line, I can't say, maybe an ethical one or something along that line, but I just though it was very wrong for him to read what he did.

But enough about Greenberg, I'm actually a big fan of him and the show. This incident is just one example of how ESPN as a whole, is trying to milk any and every amount of air time they can get out of this sad event. There comes a time when it stops being about reporting on a story and it becomes about using the story and ESPN has reached that point.

For the good of the victims and the people whose ignorance cost them dearly, I implore ESPN, and anyone else who is going off on this for 24/7, to just take a step back and not turn this mountain of an issue into a mountain range. It is a serious occurrence, to say otherwise is an act of idiocy only topped by those that covered this up for a decade, but please show a tad more respect for the serious nature of the crime.